Politicking–Better than an Unpaid Internship

Republican candidates, especially Rick Santorum, have been making a big effort to appeal to blue collar workers. Apparently, one reason for Santorum’s perceived strength against Romney has come from discomfort with the fact that Romney is just so darn rich.

Gingrich has also been positing himself as the Republican candidate against Wall Street. (Simultaneously claiming credit for the prosperity and deficit reduction of the Clinton years and policies.)

I’m not a supporter of Romney, but it somehow seems ironic for Santorum and Gingrich to tout their street cred. Santorum reported income of approximately $1 million per year for 2009 and 2010; Gingrich and Callista together reported earnings of over $3 million for 2010.

A million a year is small potatoes compared to the $21 million earned by Romney. Still, I can’t help thinking that at least Romney’s earnings come from an actual business (even if one is critical of its practices), while Gingrich and Santorum are career politicians.

A million a year to Santorum as a “corporate media consultant”?

Really?

(To be fair to Santorum–a lot of ex-pols have done very well in kind of creepy ways on the post-office circuit==I think of the millions made by Sarah Palin and Bill Clinton among others. Also, I don’t know how someone runs for president at all if they don’t get some kind of nest egg behind them. Still, I don’t think any of that makes the practice more palatable.)